


Talk to Me

by ritalara



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Fluff and Smut, F/M, Season/Series 03, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 22:36:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15083225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ritalara/pseuds/ritalara
Summary: Fitz and Simmons are searching for clues to bring Will back from Maveth while navigating their feelings for each other. A canon divergent take on 'Many Heads, One Tale'.





	Talk to Me

**Author's Note:**

> S3 Canon-Divergent
> 
> A slightly more amped and MUCH SMUTTIER version of 3x8

“Are you alphabetizing those?” Fitz asked Jemma.

The two of them were combing through volumes on symbolic anthropology & iconography in the common room, searching for references to the ram’s head symbol Fitz had discovered.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m organizing them by subject & date.”

She snapped mildly. They had both been agitated all day.

“No...you’re procrastinating,” Fitz replied, his tone edging on the slightest hint of annoyance.

“Is there something so terrible about a comprehensive system?”

Jemma’s voice tightened as she avoided his eyes.

“Why don't you want to go look into one of -”

“I've been looking,” she interrupted tersely, “I just don't like what I'm seeing...” Jemma softened

“You found a lead?” Fitz asked, tentatively, both nervous of the answer and slightly weary that she might lash out again. He knew how stressed she was and he could only imagine the anxiety she must be feeling.

Or rather he could.

His own nerves were beyond fried. After months of frustration and the agony of searching every dead-end for her, the joy of her return had been bittersweet.

Now, here they were, ever the partners, but back to sublimating their unspoken feelings with tinted arguments. Fitz was glad they were speaking and glad that there wasn’t the same level of discomfort they had worked through after her return from Hydra - but this was different, almost worse.

The tension in the air was thick and rather than being filled with anger about the secrets she was keeping from him, he was wracked with worry about everything she had told him - about the planet, the monster there, the man there, and about her feelings - for both him and another man.

His thoughts were interrupted as she explained her findings, and they continued their research in stiff silence as they uncovered more and more instances of the symbol. Fitz could nearly feel the tension wafting off of her as he thought aloud regarding his own readings.

“Fitz, there's nothing in here to help open the portal,” she dismissed.

“Of course there is...”

His frustration shifted at her confusing change of direction.

“No, it's just copious examples of how this group was evil and used Will as a blood offering!”

“But,” he pushed on, “if we can find out their goal, we can find out how they tried to achieve it. Even if we have to stay up all night, we'll find something... something to help us bring back Will.”

Jemma watched him carefully as he spoke and then she began to unravel.

“You have to stop,” she insisted, closing the book in front of him.

She couldn't drag him through this any longer.

He was too good and she was too raw. She knew the odds had gone from low to nearly impossible as it became clear that Will had been sent to Maveth as a sacrifice and she had to be the one to pull them off the search and let it go.

“Excuse me?”

Fitz was beyond confused - befuddled even.

“Stop! Just stop trying to do all the right things! It's too much,” she burst.

He stared at her, perplexed, as she turned her back and made her way swiftly out of the room.

What had he done? What the hell right did she have to yell at him...after everything they had...why was she mad at him?

Jemma stormed out, ruching across the hall and nearly turned back around to apologize but thought better of it and slumped onto her elbows at her desk.

Her heart raced. She couldn't keep doing this to him. Dragging him through this murky search for something that was becoming less and less likely to find - all while they held each other’s hearts in their hands.

She leafed aimlessly through one of the books on her desk and thought painfully of the look on Fitz’s face across the hall. She wanted to apologize but she also wanted to yell at him. Yell at him to stop being so good and so kind and so loyal because it made her feel even worse than she already did.

It made her feel guilty beyond reproach to know how much anguish he was in. To put him in that position made her feel awful and she was angry at herself for everything she had told him, and all the other things she couldn't even bring herself to say.

She thought of the conversation they’d had at the window and wondered what might have happened if, instead of watching the sunrise, he had taken her hand, or turned to her and -

“Where do you get off? Are you seriously mad at me?”

Fitz stormed into the room, interrupting her thoughts.

“I'm mad at myself for roping you into this!” she blurted back, “...it’s not fair... and I'm mad that you're so willing to help...”

The tone of her voice teetered between upset & fatigue.

“As opposed to what,” he scoffed, “ - what do you expect?”

He had no idea what she wanted from him and he was sick of trying to guess.

“I don't know! Get angry!”

Jemma wanted him to yell at her, to curse her name, to bite his thumb at her.

“I cannot fathom any way out of this without hurting someone I care about,” she tried to explain.

“You think that I'm not angry?!”

Fitz was yelling now and he closed in on her, impassioned.

“I'm sick to my stomach, I'm furious - but not at you!”

He knew she wanted him to toss her under the bus, make this her fault, but he wouldn't - he couldn't. He knew she had done nothing wrong. He wasn't angry with her for being with Will or for asking him to help save his life. How could he be? She owed him no fidelity, no monogamy to a relationship that didn't even exist. She owed no chastity to him especially when time and space and circumstances had made him nothing but a memory to her.

She was not a fault, the planet was. That ruddy planet that claimed her, that monolith that stole her away from him - tore her from her life and her friends and her family and her home.

The same way Hydra and Ward and the ocean had tried to take her before.

“...cause we're cursed - the bloody cosmos wants us to be apart!” he stumbled

“The cosmos doesn't want anything.”

She nearly rolled her eyes and the dismissal and familiarity of the expression sent his blood boiling.

“Yeah, well, I beg to differ!” he rebutted, hand flying as his frustration began to spill out of him, “ - cause we had years side-by-side - never occurred to us, and then when it does, we don't have the courage to talk about it...”

He had finally broached the real argument. The conversation they had been avoiding for days...weeks...months...

“Well, you only mentioned it at the bottom of the sea, facing certain death!” she raised.

Jemma was overwhelmed with the opportunity to finally talk about it, what he had said at the bottom of the ocean, and she felt the strain of the top pitch out her as she began to yell.

Fitz replied immediately, his ammo ready for this fight that they had been itching to have.

“You wait until I'm bound for a war on an aircraft carrier!”

He intended to wait for her lob back the next hit but he couldn't stop, overcome with the raw honesty of the moment.

“ - and then you get swept off to some far-flung planet...with him. Top-marks, pilot, astronaut, hero man,” he sighed.

As the words came out he was defeated again.

What did it matter anymore what they had said to each other months ago? They weren't those people any more.

He wasn't the same naive overgrown Peter Pan he had been before Hydra, before the accident. She wasn't the same optimistic pragmatist who had accepted his invite to dinner.

He had become hardened, first by his trauma and then by his search for her. He had been softened, first by illusions of her, and then by the memory of her. How many days had they spent apart, him desperate to know where she was?

First the panicked 24 hrs of knowing she was at The Hub, under fire, not sure if she had survived Hydra’s attack. Then waking from his coma, not knowing who she was, but sure he felt like something was missing. Then the months of trying to surreptitiously discern where she might have been after discovering she hadn't gone to her parents, with no clue if she'd ever return.

Finally, most recently, the agony of searching for tiny slivers of evidence that she was anything but dead.

Fitz didn't even know if he deserved to feel the way he did about her after nearly two years of separation offset by fractured reconciliation. How could that mean anything compared to the months she spent with Will, keeping each other alive - literally the last man and woman on the planet?

“I would do anything ...” Jemma began, an ache in her voice.

She hurt with everything inside of her to explain how badly she wanted to wake up from what felt like a bad dream. She yearned to close her eyes and open them again in to a world where she had never gone anywhere near the monolith, where she had never known any planet besides earth, any man besides...

“Do you love him?” he trembled.

He couldn't help himself. He was fairly certain he knew the answer but he needed to hear it. She needed to say it. He needed to know it was true so he could start to find some way to let her go.

“I don't know. I think... Yes.”

Jemma flinched as the words came out of her mouth. This was not how she wanted to have this conversation. It wasn't this simple, it deserved more context, more nuance, more time.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course you do. Of course you do. He's strong and smart, and you gave each other hope on the edge of nowhere.”

Fitz retreated physically and emotionally. Here was her answer, as plain as day and he had no choice but to accept it.

“Don't do this, Fitz...”

She couldn't let him do this - write himself a story of Will as the hero and him as the failure. She wouldn't let him.

The plea only riled him again.

“You think I didn't look for dirt on him?”

His voice raised again and he moved toward her.

“I did - and there's nothing."

He was firm, resigned even. It was clear what he had hoped to find.

"I can't hate him. He's great. Why else would you fall for him?”

His voice was angry, disgusted even.

“...he did everything right...”

“- and you dove through a hole in the universe for me!”

Jemma shouted, finally raising her voice again.

He couldn't take it anymore, and for a split second he considered storming out and leaving her with a taste of her own medicine but instead, in an instant, he did a double take - his eyes flitting from her eyes to her lips and back - and like a magnet he gravitated to her, reaching out and smashing in to her desperately. His left hand was around her waist, hold on to her for dear life and his right hand was snaking up her neck, just barely pressing against it.

He pulled back almost immediately, the kiss over in mere seconds, but to Jemma it felt like a lifetime. Her world stopped, careening in to slow motion. She felt his lips as each millimeter of him furrowed in to her, the press of his chest backing her against the desk and forcing her limbs back, knocking the books off her desk.

She tried & failed to kiss him back, his lips parting from hers much too soon as he began to pull away and she felt herself existing in between realties for a moment as he came back in to view.

Fitz’s breath was heavy and shallow as he looked at her, awaiting a verdict, and Jemma looked back at him like she was seeing him for the first time, like she had been looking at him through a haze and now every inch of him was sharper, brighter.

She was drawn back to him nearly outside of her own will and she reached up gently, nearly in awe as she pulled him back in to her for a tender kiss. She relished the feel of his mouth back on hers as she pulled her hand across his jaw in exquisite anguish.

Fitz was stunned. He pulled her in to him eagerly, hungry for her closeness and held his breath as he kissed her back.

It was over again too soon as they parted for air and she stayed close as Fitz paused, aching, wanting, and desperate for the moment that had just passed. Jemma stared at him, willing him to stay with her, to kiss her again, to keep his arms around her.

Instead he plummeted, dropping into a decimating moment of self loathing.

This didn't change anything.

It changed everything and nothing.

The kiss was amazing, transcendent, affirming - and he knew now more than ever that he loved her with every fiber of his being and that to have this knowledge now of how beautiful kissing her would be but never to be able to enjoy it without the pain that went along with it was his punishment.

He wasn't worthy of her and he was now more sure than ever that they were doomed.

“We’re cursed,” he breathed, his voice tight, barely able to wretch out the words.

Jemma’s heart dropped as his face fell and he pulled away from her.

It had been their first kiss and she had ruined it. She had cursed them. She had hurt him irrevocably - again. She had been careless and selfish and had lost hope that he would find her. She had nearly gotten him killed over and over and over again and now she was adding insult to injury.

She couldn't even tell him how she felt. She was a coward. She tried to let her video, her recordings, and her kiss do it for her. She tried to let that kiss tell him how much he meant to her, how many endless nights on the planet were bearable only because she had him on her phone and in her heart. She wanted to tell him that he was everything to her and that the worst mistakes she had ever made were the ones that led her away from him.

But it was all too much.

Too much to say. Too much to hear. Too much to inflict on him.

She pushed her palm to her aching head and turned away as Fitz pulled a similar motion, pacing towards the door and then turning slightly back to her - his body seemingly unwilling to leave the place it wanted to call home.

As he stood there, rooted in his pain, their pain, their self-hatred, his self-pity, he wondered if there was, as Jemma had said, any way out of this without someone getting hurt...

He was interrupted by a swift change in her tone, and a question.

“Fitz are you seeing this?”

He knew the subject had shifted and he was reticent to return to whatever she had found. He wanted to walk out of the room - out of the base even. He wanted to grab her hand and bring her with him. He wanted to push her against the wall and press himself against her until they melted in to one and the universe had no choice but to accept them together.

Instead he drug himself to what she was looking at and he was shocked back to their task.

-

Minutes later they were gathered back in the common room with the team, Fitz had dashed through the base, collecting them as Jemma had quickly spurred to action, rifling back through their books and photocopying the symbol and it's iterations over time.

Fitz was still partially stunned as he flipped around the picture of the unmistakable cephalopod that marked the symbol of Hydra - a part of his brain still foggy and his body still thrumming from his kiss with Jemma.

Jemma tried to shove their moment to the back of her mind and force her tunnel vision on their discovery but an earlier statement haunted her.

_“I have that feeling again Fitz, like something bad is about to happen...”_

Here it was, perhaps the worst possible answer, and Jemma was sombered. She felt herself gravitating to Fitz still and she stood next to him as Coulson took command - calling out orders to the team to re-calibrate all their efforts to finding Hydra & Malick.

It was late, the night creeping toward morning, and Coulson ordered them all to bed to start fresh the next day. The rest of the team followed suit and FitzSimmons set about wordlessly tidying up their research. They worked in tandem silently and both stilled themselves to say something.

The tension had mounted again and this time it had a new component. Jemma was trying desperately not to think about the press of Fitz’s body against hers and he attempted to shake away the electric memory of her hand delicately caressing his chin.

As they packed up the books and rolled them to the corner of the room in order to return to them tomorrow, they paused awkwardly as they made their way to the door. Fitz opened his mouth to mumble goodnight to Jemma, settling on the easiest possible conversation - none, and she began to speak as well.

“Fitz, I...”

He turned around swiftly, his eyebrows raised with mild hope and an expectation he tried to tamp down.

“Fitz...”

He said nothing, waiting achingly for her statement.

“Fitz, I...I don’t know what to...”

His face fell.

“You don’t have to say anything Jemma, I know how you feel about Will. I’m not giving up on finding him...and when we do you don’t have to worry about...I’ll be fine - we’ll be fine...we’ll, we’ll ...”

He shook his head at himself. It had been months since his aphasia had acted up but he felt those pathways stretched to the breaking point.

“We’ll be fine,” he repeated through gritted teeth.

He barely chanced a glance at her and her face was too painful to bear. She looked at him like a kicked puppy and before he knew what he was doing he slid out of the room and toward his bunk. He fought the urge to look back and cursed to himself at his weakness.

Why had he kissed her? Just moments after she had confessed her love for another man. Days after she had told him all about that man, and how she had lived with him, shared a bed with him for months.

Whatever inkling of attraction he now understood she might have for him, he knew Will was her future and he was her past. They would find a way through to Maveth and take a team to rescue him and that was that. Fitz knew he would find a way to let go of her - if she was truly his best friend, if he truly loved...

He was disturbed from his own thoughts as he felt Jemma behind him. She streaked past him, through his partially open door into his room and began to pace in front of his bed.

Fitz let the door shut behind him as he slowly acclimated to her. She was spiraling - he had seen it before and knew better than to interrupt until she got her thoughts out.

“You’re wrong,” she said, continuing her pacing.

He didn’t say anything.

“You’re wrong about this being fine. This is not fine Fitz.”

He stayed silent.

“There’s nothing fine about this,” she continued.

She paused then, looking at him. Whether for confirmation or rebuttal Fitz was unsure.

“Well are you just going to stand there?”

“What do you want me to do Jemma...?”

His voice was strained, fatigued, angry, defeated.

She paused, her chest tightening, her breath shallow as she stared at him.

She knew exactly what she wanted him to do.

She knew that she had no idea if Will was alive. She had no idea if they would find a way back to the planet. She had no idea what horrors Hydra might have in store for them.

But she knew what she wanted. She wanted him.

She wanted Fitz in a palpable way she could have never fully imagined.

She didn't deserve him. She had no right to want him after the hell she had put him through.

But her lips burned with memory of his and she yearned to be in his arms again in a way she could barely explain biologically.

“Kiss me.”

The air was sucked out of the room.

“What, are you...?”

“You heard me,” she said even more firmly.

In two steps he was across the room and pulling her toward him as he had done in the lab.

Jemma was prepared this time, her hands coming up to pull his face in to hers, and before she knew it he had her body taut with his, his arms firm and his chest soft. She wasted no time deepening their kiss and she slid her fingers around to the back of his head as she coaxed his mouth open with hers and roped her tongue around his.

If it had been possible, Fitz would have pulled her in closer, but instead, his hands proceeded up and down her back as she massaged her tongue with his. He moaned and relished in the moment before leaping his tongue back at hers and suddenly Jemma had pushed him against the wall on the far side of the room.

Fitz braced himself as she pawed at him and their kisses became bigger, hungrier. He panted and moaned as she followed suit and before he knew it he had turned them, her pinned against the wall now as he kissed her sloppily, moving off her mouth and on to her neck.

Jemma made a nearly sinful noise as he lapped at her pulse point and he sucked under her chin.

“Yes,” she continued.

His hands followed suit, making their way under her sheer overshirt, smoothing over the camisole underneath and he considered stopping. He had no idea what they were doing, no idea what this meant.

“Don’t stop,” she said, able as ever to read his mind.

He pushed her sweater up over her head and came swiftly back to kissing her, positioning himself so that his legs were between hers, giving him a bit more leverage to lean down and spread kisses across her collar bone.

Jemma pulled him back to her mouth eagerly and as he drove his body up his crotch dragged momentarily across hers and they both moaned deliciously. He stood still again as he kissed her deeply, calling back the tender kiss she had given him in the lab and that moment started to flood back to him.

“Jemma,” he began, breaking their kiss only for a second, “what are we doing?”

“Don’t stop,” she answered.

He stilled but only for a moment.

“I’ll keep kissing you if you talk to me.”

She stopped immediately.

“What?”

Fitz blanched.

He had ruined it.

He was fearful for what he might have just lost but he was also ignited by her tone.

“Jemma what the hell are we doing?”

She looked at him like she might slap him ...or kiss him...or fuck him.

She went with the second option, avoiding the question by attacking his mouth again.

He kissed her back angrily for only a moment before pulling back and pressing himself against her, his forehead on hers, his breathing labored.

“I mean it. Talk to me... and we keep kissing.”

He was too keyed up to stop and too desperate for answers to accept her silence.

She considered the offer and nearly cringed.

It was against every fiber of her being to acquiesce to an ultimatum and her blood boiled at the idea of letting him win.

“We both talk. We both keep kissing - and...more.”

She lunged forward to capture his lips and he kissed her hard before pulling away yet again.

“Fitz!”

“There. Now tell me what more means.”

“It means I’m going to take this off and we keep going.”

Jemma was overcome with lust.

Their kiss in the lab had kicked her in to gear and she wanted him more than anything. She wanted him more than she wanted to research Hydra or figure out the portal or find Will or hunt down Ward.

She wanted Fitz. Her Fitz.

Her heroic, awkward, handsome, engineer, partner, and best friend.

She pulled off her tank top and discarded it with her other shirt.

“Tell me what you want right now,” she added, taking his hands and bringing them to hover over her skin.

His pulse was thumping, beating as hard as it had when he had pulled her through the portal or when he had been face to face with Ward in the vault.

“I want to kiss you. Everywhere.”

She smiled, perhaps for the first time since their talk in front of the sunrise, and she let his wrists go, running her hands up his arms.

“I want you to kiss me - everywhere,” she echoed.

He obliged, following a similar path from her neck to the corner of her lips to the other side of her throat, and down to her collar bone. His hands slid over her breasts, her bra a lacy cream, and she relished in him, her temperature rising as he made his way up to her mouth and then roamed back down.

“What else do you want, with me, with us.”

“I want this, I want this...us," she breathed, her hands on his shoulders and neck, "I want us back. I want us together. Just us.”

He stilled and kissed her gently as he pulled back and looked up at her.

“Just us?”

She pulled him up and reached for his shirt, beginning with his top button.

“Just us.”

He rewarded her and himself with more kissing and she continued unbuttoning his chambray shirt.

Fitz skirted his hands around her naked waist and kissed her again.

She had achieved the undoing of most of his shirt and was moving to untuck it as she deepened the kiss. He leaned forward, making it easier, enjoying more of her in the process.

As Jemma pushed his shirt off, and he pulled away to let it hit the floor, she smiled again. The lamp by his bedside emitted a soft glow and cast an orange shadow on his skin. Jemma leaned down to place a kiss at the top of his chest.

“Does this feel good?” she asked, smattering soft lips across his chest.

“It's nice...”

Jemma looked up at him, a surprised smile.

“What would you enjoy more?”

“You. I want to feel you...I want to touch you”

Her skin was soft and beautiful and he loved her.

He loved her.

He knew he did.

He had said as much out loud, even if not to her.

He loved her and she loved...

He wanted to push it from his mind and go back to the serenity of their world inside this room. He wanted to kiss her all across her torso, and take off the rest of her clothes and make love to her. He wanted to watch her pleasure underneath him, he wanted to take her against the wall, he wanted her to ride him until they both came.

He loved her and he had known for years now that he wanted her in every way.

“Jemma why now?”

She stilled, feeling momentarily self conscious.

“I’m going to kiss you again first and then answer.”

She leaned her chest against his and he enveloped her, kissing down to her shoulders. She mimicked him and they traveled up each other's necks and around to meet mouths again.

A wave of pleasure rushed through Jemma as he slipped his tongue gently in to her and she leaned in to all of his touch. The kiss continued and they lingered on each other until she leaned away slightly, kissing his cheek, his ear, and his jaw.

“Because I don’t want to wait."

She pecked at him continuously.

"I don’t want one of us to get swept away somewhere. I don't want to get interrupted because one of us has to go on a life threatening mission, I don’t want to...” she took a deep breath and leaned back, circling her arms around his neck, closing her eyes as she took in all the sensations.

“I want you. I want to be with you and right now I don't care what that means.”

Those words were like a soothing salve on his aching heart. She wanted him.

“Jemma...”

“I mean it. I’ve been so...confused...and I know this hasn’t been...I know what I said...earlier, and, it's not that I don’t...”

He leaned down and kissed her briefly, in what was becoming a pavlovian response to her honesty.

She took a deep breath a brought her hands up to his face.

Fitz didn't want to continue, he wanted to let that be the last of their conversation. He wanted to take the rest of their clothes off and fall in to bed with her and discover everything else that was beautiful about her.

But he needed to know.

“Jemma, if you love him, and you...you want to be with me... where does that, where does that leave us when he comes back?”

If he had phrased that question that way when they had been arguing earlier she wouldn’t have had an answer, but their kiss had changed everything - had opened up everything she thought she had shut away.

“Can we...can we continue this conversation in bed?”

She had become single minded in the privacy and seclusion of his bedroom. Her guilt abated by lust. As far as she was concerned nothing existed inside his room besides the two of them.

“Jemma...”

“The deal was, we talk, we kiss, and more,” she said gently, practically coy, as she ran her hands down his chest.

“Jemma forget the deal I need you to answer me.”

He pulled away slightly and frustration had returned to his voice.

“Fitz, please...”

“Why can’t you talk to me about this Jemma? Just tell me what you want. Tell me what you want with him.”

“I don’t know!”

She pushed away from him and he was too angry to be hurt.

“You can’t have us both.”

He had been toying with the idea for too long not to be honest about it.

He couldn’t operate like that. Not with her. Not with the person who meant everything to him.

“Oh Fitz..."

She reached for him and pulled back.

"That’s not what I...is that what you think I’m trying to do? Do you think it's not killing me to see you work so hard to bring him back?”

They stood there partially clad and Jemma fought the urge to cover herself up. Just like their kiss, what she had done was ruining this too.

“I didn't want to involve you. I wanted to find a way to bring him home - to save him. Because I want him to be safe. Because he’s a person I care about. I didn't want you to have to have any part in this. I wanted -”

“What were you just never going to tell me then? Were you going to put the monolith back together and haul it to England and activate it and rig yourself up to go find him?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

She crossed her arms across her chest and Fitz tried ignore how her breasts plumped atop her crossed forearms.

His body betrayed him slightly, carrying him towards her in confrontation and attraction.

“What else am I supposed to think? You won’t give me a straight answer.”

She huffed.

“Well what do you want to know?”

“You said you love him Jemma, what does that mean for us?”

“I said I don't know! Why isn't that good enough for you?”

Her voice cracked and he fought back tears as she did the same.

He couldn't fight himself as he went to her, folding her into him, his hand on the back of her head, tucking it under his chin. They stood silently for a few moments, afraid of what came next and Fitz spoke, comforted by her in his arms and emboldened that she wasn't looking him in the eye.

“You're right, I'm sorry, I shouldn't...this isn't something you have to answer tonight. This isn't...you don't...we don't have to do this tonight. I meant what I said earlier," he continued, pulling back to take her face in his hands, "- we'll figure out the portal, we’ll find Will and bring him home safely, and then we'll figure it out.”

Jemma sighed, frustrated

“Fitz you're not listening,”

He sighed back, fatigued.

“Fine. I'm rubbish. I don't understand and I don't know what we're going to do about this and I have no idea what you want from me.”

She reached up to kiss him - sweet, soft, short. Painful.

It hurt too much to be with her like this when there was a shadow looming over them.

“Fitz. Look at me.”

She cupped his face again and looked at him with stars in her eyes.

“I don't know what is going to happen because I don't know what I'm going to tell him. He knows all about you...about you and me. He knows everything that you are to me and he...”

She stopped. She didn't want to make this about Will, but she needed him to understand.

“I don't know how to tell him about you and me and whatever this is for the same reason I don't know how to tell you about it. I don't know what this is. I don't know what this makes us. I don't know...”

“Jemma, I understand...you - you...you love him and you don't want to hurt him.”

“Fitz, I love YOU.”

She was still in his grasp and her outcry made him drawback.

“I love YOU," she urged back.

"I love you when you are stubborn and I love you when you are helpful and I love you when you are arguing with me. I love you when you are caring and when you are cranky, and when you are worried and...” her voice began to break, “...and I love you when you hold me, and when you tell me that we will figure things out together...you, you kept me alive on that planet Fitz, and -”

He was kissing her again.

Kissing her with all the anger and the passion and the fervor and the love that he had been holding inside of him for months. Without another word, he continued kissing her and didn’t stop. He pulled her face to his and grasped her mouth, his tongue moving smoothly and Jemma began to buckle in to him.

“Bed,” she breathed.

He pulled back, leaning away slightly pained, and looked down at both of them, half dressed.

His brow furrowed as he took in the sight of them together and she kissed him again, pulling at his face.

Fitz kissed her back, hugging her with so much emphasis that her feet nearly came off the ground.

“I love you,” he confessed quietly, breathless in between kisses.

The words did not surprise her until she realized he had never said them before.

Not like this at least.

She stopped, her eyes fluttering open, and he looked at her, eyes wide.

“Jemma, I..."

“I can't do this to you.”

She didn't move and he was still wrapped around her, his mouth hovering near hers. Her hands were on either side of his neck.

“Fitz you don't deserve this. You don't deserve what I...I did. You -”

“Jemma, no...”

It was all falling apart in front of him. Again. Every time he thought something good might happen they were yanked back through their own hell.

“Fitz, please.”

She inched away from his grasp and he closed his eyes, pained as his arms fell.

She didn't go far. Just stood there in front of him watching his expression. He pulled his fingers up to his brow and she nearly reached out to give him a comforting caress.

“Why?” he asked through gritted teeth, his eyes still clenched shut.

“WHY?” he asked again more forcefully, when she didn't respond

He blinked open his reddening eyes and the sight of her crushed him.

“Why would you do this Jemma? Why would you tell me all this. That you love him. That you love me. That you don't care about anything but us, that you just want to be with me...and then...”

“Fitz I don't want to hurt you. I don't want this to happen like this, not when you...”

“Is this because I said I love you?”

She didn't answer.

“What the hell?! Did you expect me to say something else? After everything we've been...” his voice cracked and he turned away.

He was absolutely maddened and considered asking her to leave but his anger had momentum now.

Fitz spun back around.

“Do you love me?”

“Yes, Fitz, I...”

“Do you love him?”

“Yes, but it's...”

“Do you want to be with one of us?”

He felt sick. He hated himself for asking. He hated the jealousy in his stomach. He hated how it made him think fleetingly of every other guy he'd ever seen Jemma fancy.

“I want you.”

But it felt hollow, like he'd had to coax it out of her, like she was acquiescing to him.

“God dammit," he breathed.

“Are you seriously mad at me?”

“I'm mad because I'm in love with you and we can't even enjoy this! Look at us! You're standing there like a bloody goddess and every fantasy I've ever had come to life and I can't even take you to bed without the universe mucking it up!”

“Well if you'd just followed my lead earlier we’d be be in bed already!”

“Is that what you want then? With me?” he huffed, agitated.

“YES!”

“Fine!”

“FINE!”

Jemma’s hands were up his neck and in his hair as they charged back at each other clumsily. Fitz grabbed her, palms grasping at her lower back as he ground in to her more fervently than intended but with pleasing effect. He slashed into to her mouth, jutting his anger and his affection and his frustration and his tension and his love at her.

Jemma bit at him slowly and pulled her teeth from the base to the tip of his tongue. Fitz felt his cock twitch and realized how hard he had become.

“Take your bra off,” he gasped

Jemma kissed him before turning around, her back to him.

He grinned unwillingly.

Even in this heady moment she refused to acquiesce to him. A tiny fleeting belligerent thought crossed his mind about how he might like to do something about that in the future, but right now he was enamored with her. His peaked anger subsiding and his chest and limbs and torso and crotch heating with desire.

He stepped forward and reached out, caressing a hand across her back and leaning down to kiss her shoulder as he unclasped her bra and she assisted in sliding it off. He reached up to push her hair to the side and swept his hands across her shoulders and back muscles as he continued kissing across the back of her neck and down her spine.

Jemma’s head tilted as she took in the enjoyment and the world around her began to quiet.

“Yes Fitz" she whispered.

He went to his knees as he came down to the waistband of her jeans and kissed where her lower back dipped in to her rear. Jemma moaned slightly and he kissed again, moving around the area, sliding his hands up and down her hips and thighs and around to the front.

“Can I take them off,” he asked as he continued kiss down her tail bone.

She brought her hands to his and he unbuttoned her denim as she gave him an encouraging noise.

Jemma could feel her energy pooling in her middle, her most erogenous body part throbbing, as she helped him with the zipper. He pulled her trousers off and she stepped out of them, slightly clumsily kicking off her shoes, and Fitz stayed on his knees, trailing his hands and his kisses up and down the back of her thighs.

He kissed up towards her bum and moaned as he brought his lips to underside of her butt cheeks. It was intimate and simultaneously unfamiliar and comfortable. He wanted to lay her out on the bed in all her nudity and ravish every square inch of her.

But first.

“Jemma, can I help you out of your knickers?”

“Hmmm" her words had gone missing but she yanked at her gray cotton briefs as his hands followed down her bare hips and his eyes became afixed on her roundness in front of him.

He nipped and licked at the underside of her buttox again and she inhaled sharply.

"Talk to me."

“Yes, Fitz, don't stop.”

He ran his tongue in the crease that folded in to her thigh and as he moved to the other side, he ran a hand up her inner thigh.

“Keep telling me what you like Jemma. Tell me what feels good, what you want more of. Tell me if there's anything you want me to do differently - or if there's something you don't like.”

“Keep going,” she answered, close to whining.

He smiled against her skin and pushed at her hip with one hand and between her thighs with the other, parting her legs. He took hold of her hips from behind and leaned further down, flipping his tongue under her cheeks and between her legs across her outer folds.

“Mmm."

Without prompting, Jemma shifted slightly and made her way to the bed.

“Come with me - and take off your trousers, please."

Fitz scrambled slightly awkwardly as he stood up and shed down to his boxer briefs.

Jemma was naked and had pulled over the pillows to the edge of the bed. She turned around and smiled at him and her eyes were heavy and her face was flushed and he couldn't wait to be inside her. She reached out and pulled him forward in to an erotic kiss, pulling back to run her tongue up his neck and Fitz cursed at the urgent sensation.

“Bloody hell"

She kissed his neck more gently and spoke again between her ministrations.

“I want your mouth on me. I want you to lick me until I come and then I want you inside me from behind and I want you to come... then later I want to crawl in bed and make love together, slowly. What do you want?”

On the last sentence she reached down to stroke him and Fitz thought he might blow right there.

“Jesus Jemma. I need to fuck you,” he groaned.

He froze at his own admission and she rewarded his honesty with thrashing kiss before reaching down to pull down his underwear and grabbing him more firmly.

“God I want you.”

“I love you Fitz and I want you inside me.”

He kissed her hard and then moved them so he was behind her, pushing forward, and heading back down to his knees as she leaned over, her stomach on the pillows, propping up her ass, with her chest pressed to the bed and her head resting on her arms.

“Keep telling me what feels good.”

He pushed her legs apart more forcefully this time and followed his previous path, his hands up down and all over her thighs as he kissed and licked her bum, and under and around the tops of her thighs, he moved towards her labia and he ran his tongue up and down.

Jemma sighed with pleasure and reached between her own legs.

“Like this,” she encouraged, parting her legs further, and using her hand to part her folds.

She opened up and Fitz got a better look at her - soft, wet, and intricate - and brought his hand up to run his fingers across her inner lips.

“Mmmm, yes, and my clit."

He knew where she wanted him and while it was a bit hard to see, he knew he could feel it. He replaced her hand with his to hold her open and licked at her again, his other fingers following. He swiped back and forth, repeating the motions and she mewled.

“Mmmm, your fingers, please...”

He brought his other hand up and his two fingers inside of her slowly and she moaned, low and long.

“Yes, oh, yes, my clit.”

Lubricated with her wetness, he drew his fingers up and immediately found her clitoris, engorged, pulsing. As he massaged it she moaned again and her breathing quickened. She reached down again, pulling her fingers close to his and said huskily,

“Like this.”

Normally Fitz hated when she told him what to do - an old pet peeve from years gone by. But here, like this, he was eager to oblige, to learn about what pleased her.

She rubbed at herself quickly - firm, sharp & rapid - and sighed. He watched her for a moment and then began to lap at her labia again. She kept up her own motions and Fitz took his opportunity to speak up.

“I love watching you. Keep going for a minute and then I'll take over.”

He slid a finger in to his mouth and then inside of her again, stroking her walls and felt her clench as she hit a particularly good rhythm and he moaned against her lower cheek.

“Yes, please, I want your mouth.”

Fitz was too distracted by all of her glorious parts and smiled at the beautiful conundrum.

“Yes, Jemma"

She smiled too at his tone, one he usually reserved for moments when she was being very insistent about an experiment or something they should go do together.

“You can alternate with your fingers and tongue if you like.”

He took the opportunity to get down business and spread her legs further.

“Move your hand and arch your back if you can"

She followed his request and the angle was much better. Fitz held both her hips and delved forward, licking her clitoris firmly with his whole tongue and then attempting to mimic the firm, rapid movement of her fingers.

“Oh YES" Jemma responded, pulling at the covers in front of her.

Fitz continued, committed to his rhythm and Jemma responded again.

“Oh my god, don't stop. Oh god that's amazing"

He brought his hand back up to assist and alternated in a continuous pattern in order to maintain as consistent a pressure and speed as possible and Jemma yelped intermittently.

“Yes, yes, your tongue, yes"

Fitz thought fleetingly about how much he would enjoy doing this again while looking at her and he felt her body clench and she spoke again.

“Don't stop don't stop don't stop”

He was getting nearly frustrated and her heat against him spurred him on. He desperately wanted to be having intercourse with her. He licked and rubbed tempestuously and could feel her squirming. He kept alternating but was having a hard time finding quiet the right sustained motion.

“Jemma, what else do you want me to do?”

“I need to come, Fitz, talk to me, tell me what you're doing, oh god, tell me, tell me how it feels, tell me what it will be like when you are inside of me.”

“Fuck,” he groaned.

He rested his face against the small of her back as his right hand worked her and he grunted.

“You feel so good. You're wet and I want to make you come. I want you to come Jemma and then I'm going to be inside you, I'm gonna finger you and I'm going to be inside of you with my -"

He was interrupted by her hand on his again and she flicked against her own clit with two of her fingers in a way he realized he would never have been so bold as to attempt in that moment and he licked at her yet again, eliciting another moan.

He stood up swiftly, crudely spitting on his fingers and leaned over her back, bringing his hand up under her and panted against her, his hard on against the inside of her thigh as he slid them in to her.

“Fuck. Jemma,” he moaned.

He placed himself closer to her entrance and his own hand was in his way as he plunged his fingers in and out of her.

“Jemma I want you. I want you so bad. I love you. I love you so much. You feel so good and I want to keep touching you. I want to be inside of you."

She said nothing but he knew she was close. She was concentrating on her own fingers and he kissed her spine while he continued, trying focus on her, trying to hold off from what he desperately wanted to do. He loved her but right this second it wasn't love making what he wanted to do with his body and hers. He wanted to fuck her, furiously. He wanted to pump in to her fast and quick and he would be ashamed at his own hedonism but so far she had seemed to be on the same page.

“Jemma, I want you. Fuck I want you.”

He pulled his hand out and centered himself behind her, his cock across her heat.

She felt him around her entrance and she could barely speak as she worked at herself.

“Yes, yes, please. Please come inside me,” she plead.

Without another word he grabbed her sides as he bent his knees slightly and slid up and in to her.

Jemma felt herself filled with him and whined.

Good heaven he felt good.

“Yes Fitz, please, yes."

He grunted back and forth  before picking up a pace.

“Jemma, oh Jemma"

“Keep going."

He purchased her hips with his hands and begin to drive himself further.

“Oh Fitz, take me, please, please take me.”

His thrusts became more rapid - shallow, then deeper, slowing as she moaned with enjoyment while Fitz was lost in her. His pace began to rudder as he hit her g spot and she gasped.

“Oh my god yes. Again.”

He tried the same motion again and she moaned.

“Faster.”

They both needed release and Fitz placed his feet sturdy underneath himself and continued the deep thrusts with renewed rhythm. Jemma restarted her motions with her hand as well and fell silent as she flicked at herself as he slid in and out of her.

Fitz could feel her clenching, feel the waves of climax and he fell forward as she finally came around him, her tight, fluttering walls spurring him in to his own release.

His arms rested on either side of her as they both came wordlessly, with guttural noises of climax and he held himself up just enough to keep the majority of his weight off of her and she slumped against the pillows, falling on to her own forearms. They panted in shared silence and Fitz began to relax on top of her, his breath traveling through him as his pleasure cascaded like the waning tide. After a few moments he strummed up enough strength to slide out of her with as much grace as he could muster, and fell to the side of the bed next to her.

Jemma inhaled a deep quick breath as the cold air hit her and she already wanted him back against her body. She was sated and warm from their activities and she knew if she didn't move she was liable to fall asleep in that precarious position. She sighed and pushed herself up on her hands, standing slowly. Her vision was hazy as she stood up and Fitz could barely open his eyes as she leaned over and kissed him haphazardly.

“I'll be right back,” she muttered, mildly coherent.

She knew she'd be more comfortable after a trip to the restroom and she teetered drunkenly to the bathroom and she didn't bother a look at herself in the mirror as she relieved herself and cleaned off. She smiled to herself sleepily in the dark thinking already of how much she was looking forward to what was next.

The tiny sliver of light from the bedroom was just enough to guide her through the bathroom and she made her way back out to find Fitz in the same position - on his back, with his legs over the edge of the bed and his feet on the floor.

She smiled at the sight of him.

Even in the slightly unflattering position he was perfect.

He was everything she wanted and she didn't have any question of it.

“Fitz,” she said softly, “I'm gonna get in to bed...”

The statement lingered, giving him space to say otherwise, and he opened his eyes.

He sat up at the sight of her and she walked towards him, stopping in between his legs. He reached out and brought her towards him, his face resting between her breasts, and she smiled as he groaned lightly.

“Bloody hell you're gorgeous...you smell amazing.”

She cupped the back of his head with both hands and reached down to kiss the top of his head.

“I love you,” she said.

He smiled against her and kissed her sternum, then leaned back to look up at her.

“I love you too Jemma.”

His face was happy but serious and she leaned down to kiss him softly.

“I know. Thank you. For telling me. For sharing everything, this, with me.”

He didn't know what to say, how to return his own gratitude. The thought of anything else was far back in his mind for now and all he wanted to think about was her and the two of them.

He stood up and kissed her slowly, his arms around her lower back, and she slipped her tongue into his mouth as their bodies pressed together.

“Let's get in to bed,” she suggested again.

“Alright, I get it, you want to be in bed with me.”

They both smiled and she kissed him quick and hard before pulling away and starting to replace the pillows.

“Be right back.”

Fitz was in and out of the bathroom quickly and by the time he returned she had repositioned the pillows at the head of the bed and was on the left side.

She knew he favored the other.

His heart cascaded with a wave of emotion and he stepped swiftly to get in bed with her - finally.

Jemma watched  as he made his way towards her, appreciating his physique, and rolled on her side towards him as he got under the covers, wasting no time to reconnect her body with his.

“You're so handsome,” she told him, placing her hand on his chest and giving him a kiss.

He rolled on his side to meet her as well and pulled her towards him. He wanted to lavish her with more compliments on her beauty but instead he kissed her again and brought her into his embrace, her arms plaited against his chest as they kissed.

They continued , finally able to slow down and enjoy each other even more and eventually Jemma rolled over and pulled Fitz with her, hitching her leg up over his hip. He could feel her warmth on him again and he moaned lightly while she deepened their kisses, the pace quickening as he placed his hands up and down her arms, her back, her bum.

“Jemma, this is amazing.”

She was so happy he was sharing so much with her. After too many months of pained conversations, silence, separation, and fretful attempts at discussing what was between the two of them she felt overjoyed.

She pushed his butt toward her and felt him against her, beginning to harden.

“Fitz, you feel so good.”

He pressed his lips & himself against her more firmly and darted his tongue sharply in to her mouth as he thrust against her. She ran her hands up and down his back and sunk in the mattress, languishing in this new and exciting closeness.

She loved him and she loved feeling him on top of her. She wanted him inside of her again, already, and she began to grind up against him, getting wet.

He moved along with her, slowly, like she had planned, and he continued to kiss her, his tongue slowing as well across hers, gradually making its way around her mouth and when he swiped it across a particularly sensitive spot on the back of her tongue she moned loudly.

Suddenly Fitz remembered how eager they had both been earlier for him to kiss her all over and he pulled back lazily as he gently removed his lips from hers and went straight to her throat, her neck, her collarbone.

He ran his mouth across the top of her breasts and ran his hand up and down her torso, across her stomach, bringing one up to her nipple as he brought his mouth to the other, enjoying it with his tongue.

She moaned again, more loudly, and Fitz smirked. He realized he was becoming familiar with her sounds of pleasure and could experiment with them, let them guide him, ask her to be vocal even if she wasn't talking.

“Keep me on the right track.”

She huffed out a breath as he mouthed from one breast to the other and blood began to pool in her center again. She could feel the beginning of the ache that she would need him to help her relieve, and she humped up against him.

He paused, his mouth on her nipple again, and smiled again, licking at her nipple slowly then more quickly, flicking it with his tongue.

Her moan became higher pitched and he took a chance, her other breast in his hand as he pinched that peak.

She whined and he sucked on her breast, moving his hand up and down across her sternum again and towards her stomach.

“Do you want my mouth again?” he asked her, his voice hoarse.

Her legs splayed open on either side of him and he chanced a look up at her face. She was silent, her eyes closed gently, and her lips parted slightly, nodding.

It was better than he could have ever imagined.

He kissed her neck again and then moved back down, pushing himself up on to his palms for leverage and slid back on his heels, kissing down her stomach and the tops of her legs.

Based on her previous enjoyment, he made an educated assumption and leaned down to mouth across the crease between her thigh and her pelvis and her leg twitched as she moaned.

He enjoyed this silence in a different and exciting way. It had been indescribably sexy when she was talking to him, telling him how much she wanted him. But now, it was serene and seductive to be guided by her body.

He remembered how much he had enjoyed seeing her, and how much he had wanted to watch her while he went down on her and he ran his hands down her arms bringing her hands to her mound as he scooted down further.

She looked down at him partially and he kissed across her legs and knees and back up to her pubic bone and parted her, kissing her.

“Show me how you want me to start,” he said, looking up at her.

She was floored. The sight of him made her clench and she pressed down one of her thighs with one hand, guiding his hand to hold the other. Then with her other hand she took his and pulled her inner and outer folds apart until he had a clear path to her clitoris.

With both of them gripping her legs and Fitz holding her open, ready, she took one finger and began gently rolling it in circles around her clit. She was wet and slid across her peak luxuriously for a few moments until Fitz had observed long enough and was ready to replicate.

He continued to hold her with his two hands and her now idle hand moved to the back of his head gently as he sunk his mouth against her and he curved his tongue around as she gasped.

It was bordering on a shriek, and for a split second Jemma began to worry about what might be heard outside his room until he brought her back to focus with his continued licks.

Fitz took his tongue clockwise, then counterclockwise, in an oval, then in a circle, up and down, then side to side slowly, deliberately. His tongue moved in spirals, broadening his reach and she pushed his head forward delicately, egging him on. He kept lapping at her, speeding up slightly while continuing intricate and meticulate patterns.

Jemma had never had someone this attentive with her during oral sex and it was exquisite. She herself had never been this thoughtful in getting herself off, usually treating it more as a means to an end, enjoying the pleasures as she went. This was so different, and so, so good. She held her breath as he worked, and she ran her fingers through his hair, trying to keep a hold on her own thigh. Fitz’s grasp had loosened, all his focus on his mouth and as a thread of unique pleasure began to thrum he brought his lips around her clit and began sucking it. Her breath hitched and she panted, quickly trying to catch it as her stomach and vagina clenched.

Fitz was incentivized to continue and his suction intensified as he sped up the strokes of his tongue and she spoke in a heavy breathe.

“Don't stop” she whispered, her limbs clenching as her orgasm began to crest.

He moved his hand from her thigh to help keep her open as continued the intense flit of his tongue against her and Jemma pulled her hand down to keep her legs braced.

She could feel herself rising and knew she needed to stay still and let it wash over her. She focused in order to open her eyes again and the sight of Fitz, both of his hands on her, his mouth sucking at her sent a zoom of hormones down her body and through her legs.

He didn't stop, unyielding and she needed exactly that. Her pleasure rose toward the crescendo and she was rooted to the bed as she let it claim her, her legs bending up as she vocalized through the sensation.

Fitz slowed down but did not immediately move away, nosing against her pubic hair, humming against her as he kissed all around. His own hand came down to his member and he pumped himself absentmindedly, partially hard. He moved up to her left side, lying next to her, one hand propping him up on his elbow and kissed her shoulder softly, running his hand down her side, her stomach, her thighs.

“Does this feel good?”

She nodded, eyes still closed, her own hands also moving across her stomach and breasts, and as he watched her passing her palms across herself he mimicked the motions. She sighed contentedly and leaned her head over, her eyes heavy as they opened, her hands slowing naturally, and his palm came to rest under her breast, cupping it and running his thumb across her nipple. She breathed in and sighed again, opening her eyes a little more to look up at him.

His affection was astonishing and she broke in to a smile that crinkled the corners of her eyes.

She licked her lips and Fitz took the hint, leaning down to kiss her. She kissed him back lovingly, closed mouth, and smooched at him, reaching her arm out to pull him back towards her.

He leaned his neck down and she kissed the sides of his mouth and his chin and his bottom lip and parted his mouth with hers, moving her tongue towards his again.

How were they ever going to go back to regular life?

She couldn't get enough of him and Fitz was ready again, bringing himself in to his hand, massaging himself lazily.

Jemma wanted to enjoy this with him too and moved her hand in between them, around his hard on. He closed his eyes and took in the feeling while he started moving his hand again around the upper half of her body. She leaned toward him and continued.

They kissed and caressed each other until Fitz spoke.

“Jemma, I want to make love to you.”

She smiled and kissed him and parted her hand from him, pulling him on top of her again where she quickly resumed. He brought his arm up and rested most of his weight on it while he ran his other hand down between them, wasting no time as he kissed her deeply and pressed himself against her.

She was soaking from her orgasm and he groaned in to her mouth as he slid across her folds, causing her to gasp at the same time. They breathed in each others air and Jemma clung to him, overcome with memories of bursts of oxygen.

“Fitz,” she cried, wrapping her arms and legs around him, “Fitz, I love you, I love you so much.”

He thrust a few times, quick at first, then slowing down, ready to enter her, and he looked down to realize there were tears in her eyes. He stopped and his own eyes watered at the sight.

“Jemma, what -"

“Please don't stop. I want you. I want you close to me. Fitz, I don't ever want to be without you. I love you.”

Her words were desperate and he kissed her but did not resume.

“Jemma, please talk to me.”

She kissed him desperately and he forced her to slow down with his lips. It was like he was seeking the truth in their kisses, bathing in her words, her mouth, her lips, her tongue.He pulled back and looked down at her, shifting himself so he was pressed a bit less precisely against the inside of her leg.

“Jemma, I love you, please tell me what's happened. Why are you upset?”

Her mouth quivered and she wanted to tell him everything with her body, with her embrace, with the man that she loved between her legs.

“I love you and I mean it that you saved me. You’ve saved me more than you ever know. More than I can count...and, I - Fitz I wouldn’t be here without you...and you mean everything to me and this...us. This is everything.”

He kissed her again - and again and again, and had no words to tell her how much she meant to him. He kissed her neck and collarbone as he moved his hand down her body and looked up at her as he positioned himself. She nodded and kissed him and he connected in to her smoothly as she gasped, their mouths opened on each other.

Fitz mouthed at her skin wherever he could reach and put his weight on his left arm as much as he could, using his right hand to caress her.

Jemma wrapped her legs around him, sinking him further in to her, and grabbed lightly at his biceps, his shoulders, his back.

Her left hand came up his neck and in to his short hair and she coaxed him back up to kiss her and Fitz moved slowly inside of her, a gentle tide. His tongue mimicked his movements and the warm pleasure mounted in both of them - pooling at points across their body.

Jemma sighed and moaned, something calm, and Fitz deepened his motions, bending his knees in to the bed and connecting at her most sensitive spot.

“Oh, yes” she hissed, grabbing him a bit more forcefully.

He brought both his hands up on either side of her head and looked down at her as he careened in to her, soft cascades of enjoyment wafting through him.

Her eyes were closed as his position thrusted him right where she wanted him, and her back arched of it's own accord as he began to pick up his pace.

Her breath hitched and she closed her arms and legs more tightly around him.

“Yes Fitz, yes, make me come.”

At her words their soft love making shifted to a more fervent pitch and he grabbed at one of her thighs as he pushed deeper, faster, and harder. His forehead fell to her shoulder and he pressed his lips against her panting.

“Yes, yes, yes, Fitz.”

He was quiet, focused, and being taken away by his own mounting pleasure. She began to clench against him and Fitz groaned.

“Oh god Jemma, yes, keep doing that”

She pulsed herself against him intentionally & involuntarily and he pressed on, eager. She kissed his neck, licking his throat, and Fitz vocalized wordlessly. Jemma smiled against his neck and her head fell back as a gentle hurricane swept through her.

He felt her small climax and tensed himself to his own soft finish, relaxing immediately on top of her as they came to shore together.

Jemma caressed him again, sweeping her hands over him, holding him to her, and he moved just enough to fall partially to her side so that he could see her.

He nuzzled his face against hers and kissed her jaw and Jemma closed her eyes, tears pricking slightly again.

She was overwhelmed with affection for him. As her hormones settled she felt each emotion heightened and bursting out of her.

He brought a hand up to her face and looked at her with question. He knew these tears weren’t sad but they weren’t quite happy.

“I meant it Fitz,” she broke in

“What I said about you saving me. When I said I wouldn't have survived without...well, I...”

She didn't want to talk about him right now.

“ - it was you who kept me alive. Kept me searching for food and water. It was the idea that you would find me. That we would be together again, and that I had to stay alive and give you time to figure it out. I stayed alive for months because I had you...and...and when I didn’t...when I thought I had...when I thought I had lost you, it...”

She trailed off and her tears took over.

Fitz wanted to cry to. He had gone through all of her recordings on her phone and knew only a fraction of what she had been through and how many times a day she had spoken to him. He thought of his desperate search for her and his own illusions of her when he hadn’t known where she was. He pulled her into him and kissed her temple.

“I know. I do. I’m so sorry that you had to go through that. I’m sorry that I-”

“Fitz, you found me,” she interrupted.

Jemma took a deep breath and pulled back just enough to look him in the eye.

“You found me... and you nearly jumped out of a plane for me, and you gave me our last breath at the bottom of the ocean and I, I am not...I am not in love with you because of all that. I need you to know that that. I love you. I am in love with you. I am in love with you because you are the man I want to be with. You are the one who has been by my side. You’re a man who is good, kind, and sweet and cares about the people in his life and I can't lose you. Because it doesn't matter if there’s other people in the universe that are good and kind and brave and caring - none of them are you. None of them are my best friend in the world - the universe. I love you Fitz because of who you are and I want you in my life and in my heart, always.”

His eyes glistened and he was speechless again.

She wasn’t quite finished.

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen or what we’re going to face when we walk back out of this room but I know I want to be with you no matter what that is. Together.”

Fitz kissed her, firm, solid, sure.

“Together.”


End file.
